December 5 in LGBTQ History

1642: A Massachusetts Bay servant is sentenced to be whipped for “unseemly practices” with another woman in the first documented example of legal prosecution in North America for same-sex relations between women.

1984: Berkeley, CA becomes the first city in the U.S. to extend spousal benefits to gay city employees and their live-in lovers. To qualify, applicants must fill out an “Affidavit of Domestic Partnership”

2005: Civil partnerships begin in the United Kingdom.

2012: Supreme Court of Mexico unanimously strikes down a same-sex marriage ban in the southern state of Oaxaca, paving the way for same-sex marriages nationally.